Table Talk With Jeremy Wayne: Adriatic Eatery & Café could do with more of the Adriatic

“Helping our community build memories for generations through simple, authentic and healthy food,” runs the blurb for the new, family-run Adriatic Eatery & Café in Eastchester. 

Ah, the Adriatic:  That sun-kissed, sparkling sea that washes upon the shores of all of Italy’s eastern maritime regions and five other countries besides – Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania. What promise. Adriatic Eatery, here I come. 

The family-run café has two entrances, one at 733 White Plains Road, the other via wooden steps in Trader Joe’s parking lot. I used the latter, entering the long room from the rear and making my way gingerly toward the counter. There was tinsel taped to tables, while the odd pine cone and small, seasonal poinsettias provided additional decoration, along with a couple of saccharine landscapes. A “Happy New Year” banner, forlornly attached to the café’s white walls with Scotch tape, completed the look. 

On a Sunday afternoon, only one other person was dining – or drinking, to be more precise, what looked like a cappuccino. I wondered if I was too late to eat. “What time do you close?” I asked the woman standing guard. “Four,” she replied. “You have time.” 

I considered the menu, excited to think I was about to embark on a culinary journey around the Adriatic. Among the items, many of them gluten-free, were soups, a Greek salad, a Mediterranean egg wrap and a poke bowl. There was also a bento box with chicken, cranberry and a dill salad, but I confess I was too struck by the very “un-Adriatic-ness” of it to be tempted. 

Considering my options, I chose the only two Adriatic-sounding items on the list, which was to say byrek – an Albanian triangular cheese parcel (they also come filled with spinach or meat) – and a slice of Italian frittata. Throwing caution to the wind, I added a bowl of lentil soup, a special of the day. 

I then sat for 16 minutes before returning to the counter in search of my “missing in action” order. “The frittata is just warming up,” the lady behind the counter told me. “This is the reason you are waiting. Would you like the lentil soup first?” I nodded politely and said I would. 

The soup was duly brought. It was lukewarm and unseasoned, a generous portion for sure, though the broth was a little thin. I added a pinch of salt and slurped it down, glad of the nourishment. The cheese byrek arrived next, heavy with pastry and a little earnest. Then, at last, came the frittata. “Be careful, the plate is very hot,” said the friendly server. She wasn’t wrong. Unfortunately, the frittata wasn’t. It was tepid. And while this Italian omelet with onions and peppers tasted fine, I was not inclined to finish it. 

Look, I’m loath to knock a mom-and-pop establishment, but I do wonder about Adriatic Eatery’s website prose, which waxes lyrical about “the rich and exciting flavors of the Adriatic.”  

Even ignoring the many specialties of the Balkans, what about the culinary treasures of Adriatic Italy – the fruit-filled gnocchi of Friuli; Venetian polenta; Bolognese from Emilia Romagna; the incomparable brodetto (fish stew) of Le Marche; and the cassata (layered sponge cake) of Abruzzo? 

I searched for some redemption, and it came in the form of a silky-smooth, rich rice pudding and artisanal Italian gelato, with flavors including Italian roast coffee, stracciatella and fig. I chose to take home some nerone (80% dark chocolate) sorbet, and very good it was, too. (Perhaps by coincidence, some of the best ice cream I have eaten in Italy is in the small town of Ostuni in Puglia, just 10 minutes from the Adriatic shore.) 

Behind the register I also spied attractive-looking boxes of biscotti and some superb-looking breads, including a particularly large, seeded wreath-like ring, which I was informed was a special order. (The café offers a catering menu.) 

But overall, I admit to a feeling of wistful regret more than disappointment about the Adriatic Eatery – that the promise and possibility of an exciting food adventure had not been made more of. After all, man cannot live by bread, ice cream and rice pudding alone – as they might (but probably don’t) say down Tirana way. 

For more, visit adriatic-eatery.com